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AP swaps out Romney's 'poor' quote

Mitt Romney's comment about not being "concerned about the very poor" is lighting up almost every major media outlet today, but at least one seems to have scaled back the alarm.

On CNN this morning, Romney told Soledad O'Brien that he was focused on helping the middle class, adding that there are already programs in place to help the poor. "I'm not concerned about the very poor," he said. "There's a safety net there, and if it needs repair I'll fix it. I'm not concerned about the very rich, they're doing just fine. I'm concerned about the heart of America, the 95% of Americans who are right now struggling."

Just before 9:30 this morning, the Associated Press published its story about Romney's comments with the headline, "Romney: 'I'm not concerned about the very poor." That is the same headline that appears at the top of articles by at least a dozen outlets, ranging from POLITICO to ABC News to the Huffington Post.

Meanwhile, some perspective: Despite his critics' eagerness to believe as much, Romney is not saying that he doesn't care about poor people. And any critic worth their salt knows that this comment -- like the comment about 'firing people' -- should be taken in its larger context.

"No, no, no," Romney told the press on his plane today (there were actually many more "no's"). "You’ve got to take the whole sentence... because then it sounds very different. I’ve said throughout the campaign my focus, my concern, my energy is gonna be devoted to helping middle income people. We have a safety net for the poor, and if there are holes in it, I will work to repair that. And if there are people that are falling through the cracks, I want to fix that."

Of course, Romney's critics are quick to note that the former Governor hasn't always been willing to provide context when attacking others. In an ad last year, he played tape of President Obama quoting an aide to John McCain, with no mention of the fact that the president was quoting an aide to John McCain.

I'll agree that makes it harder to sympathize with Romney, but I don't think it justifies giving him the same treatment. You're either for context or you're against it.

We routinely change headlines as we update stories -- in part, just to make the headlines always fresh and new since that’s a way people first come to our stories.

There was no editorial significance to our slight changing of the headline in this case. The full quote was interesting so we used that once, and the partial quote with the context was also interesting so we also used that once.

The full quote remains high in the story and we stand by the full quote.